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The building thus destroyed was Captain Bunce's lower barn, filled with hay and grain, and having some young cattle in the yard, which were driven out through the bars by the first who arrived on the premises. So the loss was confined to the hay and grain, and the building. There was an insurance on the whole, but Captain Bunce thought only about half enough to save him.

Before many of the people had arrived on the ground, some curious persons, always on the alert to spy out and detect the parties in transactions involving criminal conduct, had observed in the snow the fresh tracks made that very evening by Jims, in his return home from Mr. Haddock's.

Rumors were of course rife that the fire was the work of an incendiary. Captain Bunce knew of no body visiting the barn that evening with a lantern or any light whatsoever, and it was generally conceded that the barn had been fired by some one with evil intentions.

It was very easy, of course, to identify the foot-tracks of Jims, and he was suspected and believed to have caused the fire.

The agents of the insurance company came the next day on to the ground, and settled with Captain Bunce the amount of damages he should receive, if every thing appeared satisfactory in regard to the manner of the fire. The policy of insurance was for nine hundred dollars, three hundred on the barn, three hundred on the hay, and three hundred on the grain. As the Captain couldn't positively swear to the amount of hay and grain, he was content to call the whole loss seven hundred dollars. This showed that he was fully insured.

Poor Jims! What a dismal condition he was now in! How many circumstances all lay flatly against him! The motive? Revenge for the flogging he had received, and for other instances of ill treatment. The proof? His absence in the evening; his return just before the fire occurred; his track in the snow to the barn-yard wall, and thence to the street; his own confession that he returned at that hour across the field; the testimony of Mr. Haddock, unwillingly given, that he left his house at the time specified.

Jims had now enough to sadden him, and almost drive him to despair. He was shut up by himself, and compelled to reflect long and bitterly on his unhappy condition. But there were two sources of comfort that he enjoyed, and they contributed very much to carry him calmly through his trial. The first was the full consciousness of his innocence. He knew, absolutely, that of the crime with which he was charged he was not guilty. The second was the reflection that, only a short time previously, he had made a firm resolve, having escaped a temptation, that he would never do an act of this nature if he were to live a thousand years. So it had never entered his thoughts to fire the barn.

At the very first of the suspicions against Jims, Mr. Haddock had sought him out, and in a private interview had drawn from him a full recital of the whole day's history, including the circumstance of seeing a man stealing out of the barn-yard as he was ready to pass it. He also obtained the name of the person, but enjoined it on Jims by no means to mention it, or the fact of seeing him, till he should direct. Mr. Haddock was fully persuaded of the boy's innocence. How to make it appear, was a work of some study.

CHAPTER XIV.
THE Little Incendiary. Be very careful how you stand up for an Incendiary. The Partaker is as bad as the Thief, you know.

Of course, the next two or three days there was a good deal of talk about the burning of Captain Bunce's barn. That it was the work of an incendiary, no one seemed to entertain the least doubt; while the general opinion was equally decisive, that the cause of all the trouble was the vicious young pauper, Jims Tucker.

Before the insurance company was willing to pay over even the seven hundred dollars agreed on as the amount of damage to the Captain, they insisted on an examination before a justice of the peace. Accordingly, although Captain Bunce was willing to waive this, and rather thought by taking up with seven hundred it would not be pressed -- the Captain shrinking from public notoriety! also being a merciful and humane man! But an examination was ordered, and it was held, with all due legal forms, before Squire Ben Stout.

The object of the insurance company by the examination, was simply to ascertain whether Captain Bunce was directly or indirectly concerned in firing the barn -- not to ascertain the guilty party, if other than he, and procure a conviction. And they, in prosecuting their inquiries, were especially anxious to save themselves the payment of the loss.

Accordingly, Captain Bunce was called to the stand, and put through a very rigid examination.

"You were insured, Captain Bunce, in the company, on your barn, for nine hundred dollars?" said Lawyer Ketchum.

"On the barn and contents -- yes."

"True -- yes. Well, sir, would this cover the whole value, at any one time, since the policy was made out?"